I Teach K {Day 1}

Monday was the first day of I Teach K.  I started my day with my first presentation!  I presented about Project-Based Learning. It was a blast and I loved talking to people both before and after my session.  My kiddos would be so excited to see people taking pictures of their work.  

The room ready to go!

Some of my kiddos' work on display.

A little treat for coming. (Andes mint with the phrase "Thanks for coming to "Project-Based Learning.  I hope you'll experi"mint" with PBL in your classroom).

After I cleaned up from my session, I headed off to 3 great sessions!

The first was Catherine Kuhns about geometry.  I shared before that I'm hoping to implement math centers (multiple, in a rotation, not just a "math center") so I was looking for some new ideas for the geometry strand.  A big idea was to start collecting any cool containers to use in a "Geometry Museum".  I have collected 3-D shapes before, but this is ongoing in her classroom and she uses them for a variety of activities.  Once I got in there, I remembered that last time I saw her, she shared great literature to use in math.  She didn't disappoint this time either! :)  A couple of my favorites (already on my Amazon wish list) were:

Greedy Triangle (Marilyn Burns)  This one had been recommended on a blog before and I considered it.  Then Catherine shared about having the kids make the shapes in the book using strips of paper, pretzel sticks or toothpicks/marshmallows.  

Jack the Builder (Stuart J. Murphy) This book was suggested as an intro to building with "real world" shapes.

My second session was with Kathy Griffin about vocabulary.  Our curriculum is big on vocabulary, and I was hoping to find some fun ways to incorporate it (without droning on).  My big take away from this session was Ms. Booksy on YouTube.  It seems that I might be the only one who has never heard of this!  She talked about having the kids be "active listeners" when listening to a story and asking (politely) about words they do not know or understand.  Then, after defining them, try to incorporate them into your writing lessons.  Your students' writing will become more detailed and grow.

My final session of the day with with Deedee Wills about writers workshop.  She shared different types of writing her students do throughout the year and had some great student examples.  Her blog is my "go to" for writing inspiration and ideas.  I originally stumbled upon her and read about a book study she was doing on In Pictures and In Words by Katie Ray Wood.  I immediately purchased the book and started reading, and it is still a great resource that I use almost 2 years later.  

It was an exciting day 1!  Looking forward to the rest of the week :)